In LTE (Long Term Evolution) system uplink transmission, intra-cell inter-UE (User Equipment) interference will not constitute the main limitation factor for cell average throughput, as well as for cell edge throughput, much thanks to the use of SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access).
Accordingly, more and more advance receiver algorithms used for LTE uplink performance have been studied. One such algorithm which does not require any modification to neither the UEs, nor the 3GG specifications is referred to as turbo SIC receiver (Up Link Successive Interference Cancellation), which is to be applied for an UL (Uplink) data channel, such as e.g. PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel), aiming at removing the inter-cell interference impact on the uplink signals. More information on UL SIC can be found in paper “Turbo Receivers for Single User MIMO LTE-A Uplink” by Gilberto Berardinelli et al, Department of Electronic Systems, Allborg University, Denmark, 2009.
There are further prior art available which focus on improving uplink performance based on scheduling information associated with neighboring cells. Once scheduling information of a neighboring cell has been acquired, it can be used for improving the UL reception in three ways, namely 1) Acquire interference information of the strongest interfering sources and use UL SIC to mitigate these interferences. 2) Improve the accuracy of a noise and interference covariance matrix estimation for some commonly used receiver, such as e.g. a MMSE-IRC (Minimum Means Square Error Interference Rejection Combining) receiver, or 3) Improving the channel estimation accuracy, and hence improve the total receiver performance.
FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of a communications network 100, configured as an LTE network comprising a core network 101, connected to a plurality of eNBs 102a,102b, serving a cell 103a, 103b, respectively, allowing UEs, here represented UE 104, connectivity via communication network 100. In addition, an Operations, Administrations and Maintenance (OAM) 103 is connected to the eNBs.
FIG. 2 is a simplified illustration of a signaling scheme, which illustrates how scheduling information can be distributed between two adjacent cells, such as the ones described in FIG. 1, in order to enable a cell 103b, here referred to as the first cell, to acquire scheduling information originating from a neighboring cell 103a, and use this information to reduce the interference caused by the scheduled UL transmission of the neighboring cell 103a. More specifically, a scheduling decision is made for the neighboring cell 103a, as indicated in step 1:1a, before the scheduling decision is provided to the first cell 103a via any type of arrangement, interconnecting the respective cells, or more specifically the RBSs (Radio Base Stations) or eNBs serving the respective cells.
In step 1:3a the neighboring cell prepares a scheduling command on the basis of the preceding scheduling decision, and in a subsequent step 1:4a the neighboring cell transmits the scheduling command to a UE 104 served by the neighboring cell 103a, which thereby may receive the scheduling command and use it when transmitting in the UL to the neighboring cell 103a, as well as to other adjacent cells, here represented by the first cell 103b, as indicated in a next step 1:5a. Since the first cell 103b is connected to the neighboring cell 103a via a fixed connection, the acquired scheduling decision may be used by the first cell 103b, such that it is taken into consideration when preparing for UL reception at the first cell 103b, as indicated in step 1:1b, executed in another step 1:2b. 
In order to enable distribution of scheduling information to adjacent cells there are a number of different approaches available. According to one embodiment, which is based on intra-RBS (Radio Base Station), inter-cell communication, inter-cell information is exchanged via a vendor specific solution. Such an implementation could be executed by backboard, by use of inter process communication, or by communication between software blocks/unit, dependent on the implementation. When applying such a solution, a signal can be combined between different cells or different sectors at the same cell. High hardware requirements at each RBS site and on the total base band processing capacity, will introduce higher processing requirements for the base band processor capacity of the RBS, and hence also higher component and development costs. If the RF (Radio Frequency) system is located in different places for different cells, an optical fiber or any other solution for providing a high capacity transport channel will be required, and in most cases very costly for the operator. A solution supporting different sections in one cell will also require high costs due to the requirement of setting up a high capacity transport channel, e.g. via an optical fiber solution, arranged between the RF system and the RBS, or between different RBS sites.
According to another embodiment, a high-capacity, low delay connection is instead provided between each associated RBS and baseband scheduler. Such a solution will however result in high deployment requirements at rollout for the operator, due to the fact that the operator will need to provide for geographically separated points connected with e.g. optical fiber.
For most operators there will be no backhaul to exchange scheduling information between the RBSs using this type of arrangements, and as a consequence, features, such as UL SIC, as well as other alternative ways of trying to diminish interference which rely on scheduling information of neighboring cells will not be executable at all.